Trespassers Will Be Shot

China’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi, who died in 210 BC, wanted to make sure that he would not be disturbed in his final resting place. So he had booby traps positioned around his huge burial mound at Mount Li in Northwest China. According to the historian Sima Qian, the emperor ordered loaded hair-trigger crossbows to be set up in the passages leading to his tomb and in the undergrowth around the mound. There was much that needed protecting. Sima Qian also recorded that more than 7,000,000 men had been conscripted to build the mound and tomb in a project which took 36 years to complete. The imperial treasures buried with the emperor were so valuable that specialist workers who helped move the riches into the tomb were buried alive to ensure that no details leaked out. In 1974, a group of astonished peasants sinking a well near Mount Li discovered a number of life sized terracotta soldiers. These later proved to be a part of a buried army of more than 7000 clay figures. Since Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi had been interred, they had maintained their vigil close to the imperial burial mound. Standing in battle formation, complete with life-sized models of chariots and horses, the clay men were wearing armour denoting their different ranks, and carrying real weapons. Incredibly, after 2000 years, one of the swords was still sharp enough to split a hair.